Crime gang that plotted to sell guns jailed for total of 80 years.

The firearms involved in the plot included AK-47 assault rifles and Skorpion and Uzi machine guns, "everything an assassin might want," the judge at Manchester Crown Court was told.

A crime gang that plotted to sell deadly automatic guns and kill a rival in a revenge shooting have been jailed for a total of 80 years.

They were caught when investigators cracked the codes of a secret encrypted phone system used by organised criminals across Europe.

One gang member was known as "Assassin's Creed", another had the nickname "Legend Killer".

The firearms involved in the plot included AK-47 assault rifles and Skorpion and Uzi machine guns, "everything an assassin might want", the judge at Manchester Crown Court was told.

In one episode, three guns and 300 rounds of ammunition were sold for £37,000, delivered by a gang member on a bike in the car park of a convenience store in Warrington, Cheshire.

In a decoded message on the villains' Encrochat phone network, two gang members discussed the murder target and wrote: "Oh yes, he's a dead man." Umair Zaheer, 34, from Eccles in Greater Manchester, was jailed for 25 years after admitting a plot to possess firearms with intent to endanger life, a similar possession charge and conspiracy to supply cocaine and cannabis.

For the rest of the gang, Hitesh Patel was jailed for seven years and five months; Robert Brazendale to 11 years and three months; Brandon Moore to 11 years and five months; Jordan Waring to eight years and seven months; and Louis Coleman to six years and nine months.Another courier, Patel, 27, handed over £37,000 for a Skorpion, an Uzi, a Taurus Brasil revolver and ammunition and drove them to London where Metropolitan Police later found them hidden behind a false wall in a house in north London.

The NCA sent details of the murder plot to GMP whose investigation led to the men being charged with firearms and drugs offences. Brazendale was jailed for 11 years and three months after admitting a plot to transfer prohibited firearms.

Moore got 11 years and five months, Khan got 10 years and eight months and Waring eight years and seven months. Patel was jailed for seven years and five months.A sixth man Louis Coleman, 23, from Salford, was jailed for six years and nine months after admitting cocaine and ketamine supply.

Detective Constable Steven Walker, of GMP Salford's Organised Crime Unit, said: "This group of men undoubtedly posed a significant threat to the city of Salford and it's right that they'll now spend a majority of their adult years behind bars."The weapons that they were in possession of and the conspiracy they were planning could've proved to be a lethal combination and the work we've been able to do with the National Crime Agency has certainly saved at least one life."